


Out Of the Dark

by LeeMorrigan



Series: Shape of Shadows [6]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bronach Quinn, Clint will get his family back, F/M, Gen, Hallucinations, Infinity Stones, Quantum Realm, Steve x OFC, Thanos Is Going Down, mcu - Freeform, messing up time, steve survives, undoing the snap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-12-26 16:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18285806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeeMorrigan/pseuds/LeeMorrigan
Summary: Carol, Thor, and everyone are back on Earth and it is time to use their combined super powers, brain power, and determination, to get their friends back and undo the Snap. Steve and Bronach will have to grapple with losing half the universe, a battle with a titan, and what will become of them when the dragon is slain and the dust settled.





	1. It is Always Darkest Before the Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> I have not seen CAPTAIN MARVEL (I know, bad fan) or ENDGAME, so no spoilers for anything post-INFINITY WAR. I began this series before seeing RAGNAROK, so any inconsistencies with canon have been kept for continuity sake. I do not own the MCU (else Thunderbolt Ross would be dead & Loki/Heimdall/Volstagg would not), nor any of the characters from the MCU. I own only Bronach and a few OCs.
> 
> Trigger Warning: Contains mild swearing, depictions of hallucinations both visual and auditory, mentions the effects of long-term isolation, deals with survivors guilt and other associated issues our Avengers may face.

Tony listened as Shuri, Bruce, Wong, and the newly arrived Carol Danvers and Scott Lang, explained the Plan. Their mad plan he had helped formulate with them, and Thor, in Shuri’s wrecked lab. Everyone else was gathered to listen, all looking broken and hopeful at the same time.

“Basically, Scott and I have put our heads together. I cannot pull everyone out the way I had anticipated, however I can pull all of you out of a similar realm, after you’ve lured Thanos there and taken the gauntlet and Stones from him.”, Shuri laid out.

“I’ve got enough equipment to get myself back there, but I can’t fight this guy alone, obviously.”, Scott added. “But Princess Shuri has said she can have suits made up for all of you in order for you to come into this realm with me. It is like the Quantum Realm but… lower. I accidently wandered into it after I was left in the Quantum Realm. The… Thanos took my team and I was left untethered in the Quantum Realm, and I found this other realm. I met someone there, he said we can lure Thanos there, and once we do, we can take the Stones and Thanos will be no more powerful than a body builder.”

Bronach raised a hand, a simple question coming to mind and then spiraling.

“Who was this man? How did you get out without your team? Can we trust the guy you met? And, how does this place let us get the Gauntlet?”

Natasha added, “Same.”

Scott nodded, clearly nervous. Tony decided to cut in.

“He doesn’t know who the man was, though he said the guy had been there a little while and seemed mostly unaffected.”

“Unaffected?”, Nakia queried.

Nakia arched an eyebrow. 

"Mostly?", she asked the thief-turned-superhero.

“When we get there, we’re going to hallucinate, but if you try to touch the things you’re seeing- your hand goes right through them. And the things you hear, when you try to figure out what direction they are coming from, the direction changes, leads you to stray from the path. When we get there, we’ve all gotta prepare for the fact that we will hear and see things that are not there. The guy I talked to there, he said that the hallucinations get worse when you focus on them, and he helped me get out, but he seemed a bit... haunted. I don't know how long he'd been there. Whatever you do, don't follow or focus hard on the things you hear and see.”

Clint looked up, his eyes darker and more haunted than even after he first woke from Loki’s mind-control.

“What kind of things?”

Scott let out a long sigh. He didn’t want to talk about it, yet he knew they deserved the heads up.

“I kept hearing Cassie,”, he remembered to add, “she’s my daughter. I thought I heard her calling for me, crying. I tried to follow her. Trust me, don’t do it. The places it leads you off to, mess with your head even worse. Stay on task, stay together, take down Thanos, come home. That’s the plan.”

Shuri added one more detail, “Your suits will allow me to pull you back, like magnets, to make sure you all come home. If needed, they can also help you locate each other. They will also be equipped with a count down clock. The conditions there are too unstable for the power within the Stones, and they will become dangerously unstable the longer the Stones are there and the more Thanos uses them. He may become aware of this at some point, however, the Stones are losing their predictability in how they will work. Once Thanos arrives, we will have a limited window to get the Stones out of there, before they break down completely and erupt.”

Bronach’s eyes went wide. “Erupt?”

Shuri nodded, and Wong added, “Destroying time and reality themselves. They will not only take out this sub-universe, they will destroy our universe and any others.”

Tony jumped in, “Any alternate timelines, parallel dimensions, pocket dimensions, the Quantum Realm, anything like that. Gone. Poof.”

Steve shook his head, this was so much. If they took too long, the entire universe would collapse. Bronach leaned into his side, pressing her warm forehead against his neck.

“We can do this, Steve.”, she whispered.

Nat stood.

“When do suit up?”

Shuri let out a long sigh, pulling up some things from the beads on her wrist and scrolling through them as the image hovered above her hand.

“It will take me another 40 hours to finish the suits, and with Scott’s help, I can beef up a set of devices to hold the Stones. I had been building one, in case we needed to hold Vision’s for a time, so Scott will be helping build five more while I work on the suits.”

Carol added, “We will all basically have to stand on a platform and let it eject us into this lower dimension, and when we’ve got the Stones, we hit the alarm button on our suits to alert Shuri back here, so she can suck us all back here, with the Stones.”

“We’re leaving Thanos behind.”, Tony finished.

Nebula growled.

“You can leave me with him.”

Scott looked up, confused.

“You don’t think leaving him stranded without the ability to leave, hallucinating and powerless, is punishment enough?”

Nebula set her black glare on him.

“No.”

Thor stepped up, adding one last detail.

“The Princess has said she will include a count down clock on our suits, so we know approximately how long we have to get the Stones away from Thanos, before the Stones become too unstable.”

Carol added, “And when we get back, the new gauntlet should be ready to go.”

Shuri affirmed with a nod, “And then you can reverse the damage he’s done.”

Carol let out a long breath. She had only known these Avengers and their companions, for a few hours and yet she knew they would be equal to this task. They could not lose. She and they would save the universe.

It was Clint who spoke up next, “Are you sure you can do it? Bring everyone back?”

Shuri looked at Carol and Wong, then back to Clint.

“I must. Wakanda needs T’Challa. The world is depending on it, the universe depends on our success. You will bring back the Stones and I will make sure that everything is ready for Captain Danvers has what she needs to undo Thanos’s work.”

Clint let out a breath that sounded as if he should be deflated when it was done, before sliding off the table he had been seated on.

“I suggest everyone get some rest and a good meal. Wheels up in 40 hours.”

~*~*~*~*~

Steve stood on a balcony of the palace, his hands holding what had been among his few belongings to survive his time in the ice. His compass with Peggy’s photo pressed into the inner lid. He looked at her for a moment, thinking of her last words to him. She had spoken of doing the best you could with what you had, rather than lamenting what you had lost and what could never be.

When the whole world fell apart, she adapted and she changed the world. The photo reminded him of that spirit and determination. Two things the whole team would need in order to defeat Thanos for good.

“Steve?”

He turned to see Natasha standing there. Her blonde hair was a mess and she wore PJs he was sure she had borrowed from Nakia.

“Can’t sleep?”

She shook her head and moved out to stand beside him.

“What’s your excuse, you fossil?”

He tried to smile. It did not come.

“Prepping a motivational speech for tomorrow?”, she teased.

The smile came that time, small as it was.

“In case you’re wondering, your girlfriend is also walking around like a zombie. I’m bunking with Clint, at least we each have one familiar thing, if only it’s his snoring and my inability to sit still in my sleep. Tony and Bruce are bunking together until Pepper arrives in a couple hours, and Okoye looks like a ghost sitting outside of Shuri’s lab.”

He nodded.

“Thor?”

“Hiding on an even higher balcony.”

“He lost everyone.”

“He’s beating himself up that he didn’t take Thanos’s arm off, or his head.”

“I heard him say that his brother would have known better.”

Natasha let out a low growl.

“I hated his brother, still do some days, even after Thor talked to me about some things regarding his brother. But I never would have wished the guy dead, if only for Thor’s sake.”

Steve tried not to think of the look in his friend’s eyes. The same look that greeted him in the mirror. Bucky may not have been his blood, then again Loki had not truly been any blood relation to Thor, yet they both lost their brother first to mind-control and then to Thanos’s hand.

“Get some sleep. I’ll go get Noch.”

He got all of three steps away before Nat’s voice stopped him in place.

“Do me a favor, don’t waste the time with her. Maybe not all of us are coming back tomorrow. Be a shame if things were left unsaid.”

With a single nod, he left. Natasha turned her back and gazed out at the beauty of Wakanda. With such beautiful stars above and greenery below, there was not a single direction you could look without finding something pleasing to gaze upon.

It took only a few minutes to locate Nock. She always seemed to go to the same couple places when she sought him out. The gardens, the kitchens, or the observatory. Steve found her in the center of one of the observatory’s courtyards, her head tilted back so she could look up at the stars as she leaned back on her elbows with her legs out in front of her.

“I miss when I was a kid and didn’t realize there was anything else out there except the stars. I used to think they were giant fireflies who learned how to survive in space and keep their butts lit up forever.”

Steve couldn’t help but picture the cute, gap-toothed, spindly girl he had seen in pictures. Gravity seemed to hit him harder than usual, and Steve sunk down to stretch out next to Noch, letting his eyes seek out a random star to watch. He couldn’t see them so well back in New York, D.C., or London. To see them as brightly as he had in Ireland with Bronach, Sam, and Natasha, was a welcome sight.

“You didn’t have to come looking for me.”

“I know.”

“Nat said she saw you out as she was going for a walk.”

“Both creatures of the night. Clint’s snoring only offers so much comfort for her, I ‘spect.”

“She said something that made a lot of sense.”

Bronach turned her head to look at him, offering a small, patient smile. She looked tired enough to fall over.

“When this is over, when we’ve gotten everyone back and Thanos is gone… I want to retire.”

Steve let his head fall back, looking straight up at the stars. He did not want to see her face fall if she did not like what he had to say. He wouldn’t lie to her. He was done being an Avenger after this.

“Peggy talked about how her one regret wasn’t losing out on any future we might have had, rather that while she had lived her whole life and lived it well and truly to the fullest, I had been left adrift after spending so long frozen out of my own life. And almost from the day they woke me up, I’ve been fighting. First it was the SHIELD agents who mistakenly tried to trick me into thinking it was still 1941, then the Chitari a few days later. It seems like every time I’ve turned around, there’s been another villain and his minions. After this, I’m taking Bucky, Sam if he wants, and I’m retiring. Even Tony said he was going to hang it up after this. The world will still have Thor, T’Challa, Wanda, Vision, all of them. They won’t need us.”

“Do you think you can do that? Just walk away?”

“If I had something else worthwhile to go to, yes.”

“What is this worthwhile thing?”

Steve let out a breath, trying to buy a moment. He was not entirely sure how Bronach would react and he was stalling, if he admitted the truth to himself.

“I’ve been looking at a property in Washington state. They want to open a facility for veterans in the area. Sam has already talked about maybe going there to work, whenever we stopped being on the run. I could go live out there, work with the veterans. No one there would mind Bucky so much. And we’d be far enough out that the chances of someone accidently setting him off would be pretty minimal.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out.”

“Except one thing.”

Casting his eyes over, he watched her face carefully.

“Where you fit in. Where you want to fit in.”

“I’ve been an Avenger since Clint dragged me in. Never gave it much thought what I’d do when this all got sorted out. I always figured retirement wasn’t permitted.”

“What would you like to do, if you retired when this was done?”

Bronach let herself fall back flat, a sad smile playing at the edges of her lips.

“I wanted to travel without a boss telling me when and where I would go, how long I would stay, and who I’d talk to. Just go to Edinburg or Cairo because that’s where the dart landed when I threw it after I spun a few times, blind-folded. Just get lost in Greece for a few days or backpack through America’s national parks for weeks without having any deadlines to worry about.”

“Sounds like you’ve thought about it more than you’d like to admit.”

“I’ve always wanted to travel. My mom claimed I was born with itching feet, my grandpa said I ought to have been born with wheels and an axle.”

“You going to travel alone?”

She shrugged a shoulder.

“There is this certain broad-shouldered fella I’ve considered taking with me on this adventure.”

Turning, Bronach offered a smile.

“Think I might be able to talk him into coming on some of these trips with me? When he’s not too busy?”

“If you ask me, I’ll go anywhere with you, Bronach. All you’ve got to do is ask me.”

“Want to get lost with me, Steve Rogers?”

Steve leaned forward, moving to hover over her lips and pressing a slow, tender kiss to her chapped lips.

“Yes.”

“Good. Can’t think of anyone I’d rather get lost with. But if you really want to open that place in Washington, we could do that and go get lost on your vacations. I mean, I’m a terrible cook and not sure how useful I’d be to your veterans, but I can fix broken doors and floors, I’m a pretty handy plumber, and I could do some electric work as long as it isn’t too complicated.”

He smiled down at her, “Bucky told me he was at peace here. I don’t know that I could be, for very long anyhow. If we traveled, I could swing by to see him from time to time. I think… I think I could be selfish for a little while, and travel with you, see the world when the stakes aren’t life and death.”

Her warm hand reached, cupping his cheek.

“We don’t have to settle everything tonight. We’ve got the rest of our lives when we get back.”

“When?”

“When. You’re coming back with me, Bucky, Sam, and everyone else at the end of this, Rogers. Cause if you die, I will personally kick your ass for leaving me.”

He offered a tiny smile. Bronach ached to see his full, real smile again.

“Yes ma’am.”

Steve pressed a light kiss to her lips, then moved away to stand up and offer Bronach a hand up. She took it, allowing him to pull her all the way into his chest.

“Come on, we’ve got a big day tomorrow.”, she muttered against his shoulder, her head tucked almost into the crook of his neck.

Their hands naturally found each other in the dark, fingers intertwined as they walked back into the palace. Tomorrow, they would face a titan in a foreign realm of reality, to try to return half the universe back to where they belonged.


	2. Nightfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the sub-realm, Thor finds a welcome surprise and the team ready for the final battle against a titan. Back on Earth, Shuri races the clock to build her own gauntlet to allow our Avengers the power of the Infinity Stones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still haven't seen CAPTAIN MARVEL (I know, bad MCU fan), ENDGAME isn't available yet, and someday I'll get around to DOCTOR STRANGE. No spoilers. Lightly altered due to the new ENDGAME trailer (mostly a description of uniforms).
> 
> Trigger warning: Survivors Guilt mostly.

Thor and Steve stood to the side, each wearing their new red and white uniforms, as they waited for Shuri, Scott, Bruce, Tony, and Pepper to finish the last touches on everything needed to send their team into a strange realm in order to face Thanos. Thor watched as everyone worked off their nervous energy. Natasha tapped out a familiar rhythm against her hip while looking out a window at Wakanda below. Nakia paced on the other side of the room while Okoye stood statue still on one side of the only door, M’Baku on the other side of it to stand sentry with her. Clint looked as if he were practicing some sort of mantra under his breath, Carol studied a statue of the god Bast, and Bronach was tracing idle patterns across a map on the one wall. Nebula and Rocket sat alone in one corner, neither speaking or looking at anyone, and Wong sat with his eyes closed and legs crossed behind one of Shuri’s work benches.

“Steve?”

The Captain looked over at Thor, a grim sort of determination set in the soldier’s face. Thor figured his visage was no more cheerful at present. Speaking quietly, he imparted an important note to his friend.

“For the Plan to work, we need Carol Danvers to return from this other realm and be able to wield Princess Shuri’s weapon to undo the damage Thanos did.”

Steve nodded.

“I understand.”

Thor gave a single nod, not wishing to have anyone become suspicious of their conversation. If it came down to it, he and Steve would do whatever they must, to ensure that the one person who could reverse Thanos’s devastation, would return to Wakanda.

Thor cast his gaze over their team, and those who would be aiding them. They could not lose for the second time. This time, should he be presented with the chance, he would not hesitate to take Thanos’s head. The titan had taken his people, half the universe, half of those closest to the Avengers, and he had taken Loki.

Shuri moved to them, handing Thor and Steve two devices. They looked to be made of the same vibranium weave as the outer layer of their suits, with a clock face and another small window on them.

“The clock is to let you know how much time you’ll have once Thanos arrives. The other screen is to direct you where your teammates are if anyone hits the distress call.”

Both men nodded, allowing Shuri to strap the instruments onto their wrists. Bruce came behind her, handing each of them a box roughly the size of a football. There were four locks on them to press the lid in, creating what Thor surmised was an air-tight seal.

“You get a stone in each of these boxes, it will help keep them stable while in the lower realm, but also will allow us to handle them without the power of the stones taking us out. Rocket says that the whole team he works with, together the five of them could hold the stone, but he says Groot is far more powerful than we are, and the half-human Quill is also half of some being as old and possibly more powerful than Thanos himself, so I don’t know what it would do to any of us if we tried.”

Steve looked carefully at the box as he spoke up.

“I do. It isn’t something you want to have happen.”

Shuri nodded, adding, “I will have the platform ready and the instruments aimed in a few minutes.”, and she walked away.

Bruce nodded, walking along behind her to help. Natasha and Clint stood to the edge, talking a bit and managing to make each other almost-smile. Nakia and Wong were helping hand things to Shuri and Bruce, while Tony went to talk to Pepper for a moment. Steve stepped away from Thor’s side as Thor appeared more interested in speaking with Carol than in continuing to stand and stare at the team.

“Noch?”

She turned, facing Steve with a worried smile. He moved closer to her, until they were standing with their foreheads touching. Bronach’s hands moved to his waist and his to her hips. For a oment, they took the silent comfort the other offered, a calm ahead of the plunge.

“I love you, Steven Grant Rogers.”

He tilted his head to press a soft kiss to her lips before offering, “I love you too, Bronach Quinn.”

Reaching, he trailed a stray lock of black hair, tucking it behind her ear. Green-hazel eyes looked up at him, as warm as ever. It was terrible timing, but Natasha was right. Maybe not all of them would come back from this one.

“If we get back,” he started.

“When.”, she interjected.

“When we get back, would you marry me?”

She arched an eyebrow.

“If you ask me Steve, there isn’t an adventure I wouldn’t join you on. Why would this time be any different?”

She kissed him gently, her hand moving to cup his cheek.

“Come on, let’s go kick this guy’s butt and get your best man back.”

Smiling, Steve nodded, dropping his hand to take Bronach’s in his as they walked towards the platform Shuri would use to send them. Without the platform, the entire room’s contents would be transported.

“Just a minute, and I’ll have this ready to send you all down.”, Shuri assured them.

The team all looked over each other. Tony, Pepper, Bruce, Thor, Steve, Bronach, Clint, Natasha, Scott, Rocket, Nebula, and Carol. Shuri had wanted to come along, except she was needed far more in this control room to be able to take care of getting them there and back again. Nakia and Wong were staying behind, in case Shuri needed any help. Okoye and M’Baku intended to stand guard, just in case Thanos thought to send someone directly after Shuri or the device that would be sending them to this lower realm. Thor would be aiding it, however Shuri would be magnifying his powers so he could move the entire team all in one shot.

Once they were assembled on the platform and Thor had ignited his power, readying the Bifrost bridge, Shuri moved to her post. The control panel lit up and their coordinated effort sent the Avengers flying in a bright, blinding glow. Shuri was knocked back, saved only by Nakia’s strong grip and quick reflexes.

Shuri moved to stand on her own feet, thanking Nakia before moving to check the control panel. Everyone’e suits read that their vital signs were in order and they had arrived at their intended destination. She let out a breath. At least this much had worked out.

“How long until Thanos will join them?”

“Time does not work the same way there, so it should only feel like a few moments for us.”, she muttered before moving to the other panel, where a few pieces were laid out. Nakia recognized them. They were the couple pieces of would be Carol’s gauntlet, allowing her to undo the damage of Thanos.

“I must finish this and… the rest is up to them. Hopefully they will return soon, and we can finish Thanos.”

“Bast willing.”, Nakia muttered.

“Bast willing.”, Okoye echoed.

M’Baku added his own sentiment, making Shuri smile. He had invoked the protection of Hanuman for the team. Then, turning to face Shuri and Nakia, he added, “I will be at the door. If Thanos sends someone to interfere, they will answer to me.”

Okoye nodded, “I will go with him.”

Nakia and Wong turned to Shuri, but Nakia was the one to speak.

“What do you think the odds are that this will work?”

Shuri had no mathematical answer for that.

“They will succeed. We must have faith. In the meantime, we’ve much to do.”

~*~*~*~    ~*~*~*~    ~*~*~*~

Upon arriving, the whole team took a moment to orient themselves. Nothing was familiar. The sky, such as it was, appeared more like an inky, milky puce color with streaks of brown and purple. The ground squished under their boots almost like slime and was the color of pond scum. Everything seemed to weigh on them, almost as if this strange realm were trying to push them out, unwelcoming of outsiders.

Thor and Carol went first, leading the way. Steve and Bronach were bringing up the rear. As they walked, Steve was sure he heard something. Turning, he saw Bucky. His hair was wild, the lower half of his face covered, and a red star on his gleaming arm.

“Bucky? Bucky, what happened to you?”

Bucky turned, as if noticing him for the first time.

“Who the hell is Bucky?”

Steve shook his head in an attempt to clear it.

“Steve? Steve? We could go home now.”, he heard Peggy say to him.

“What was good, is great. What was bad, becomes terrible.”, Dr.Erskine.

“He would have been glad it was you.”, Peggy again.

Steve rubbed a gloved hand over his ear, trying to blot out the voices. Meanwhile Clint and Natasha were fairing no better. Both were gritting their teeth, eyes laser-focused on Thor’s back.

“Daddy? Daddy, where’s mommy? Mommy?”, Clint’s eldest called. If he glanced to his right, he could see the children playing with their baby brother, as Laura watched from the picnic table he made her when she first announce the impending birth of their eldest.

Natasha, meanwhile, could hear many of her former targets as they begged her, questioned her, and reminded her of all their loved ones they left behind. Asking if she knew what pain she caused by killing them. She stared straight ahead, as Scott suggested. She would not allow these ghosts to pull her down. Not now.

Thor glanced over, intending to check on Carol as he felt the hallucinations creeping in on him as swore he heard the voices of his family. He was started to see her, wondering if it were hallucination or the genuine article. Her entire skin seemed to be generating a flame-like appearance. Even her eyes glowed like a burning star.

“Carol Danvers?”

She nodded.

“You aren’t seeing things, Thor. My powers… they are more visible here.”

He nodded, then looked back at the rest of the team. Nebula seemed as focused as ever, Rocket looking around with his blaster in his hands. Clint and Natasha both seemed ready to scream yet the hard set of their jaws made it clear they were keeping their heads. Bruce, however, had gone straight to the Hulk and stomped beside Tony in his suit, leaving Tony’s face covered. Pepper, wearing her Rescue suit that Tony had designed specifically for her, left her face as shielded as Tony’s. Scott walked shortly behind them, also hidden under a helmet. Steve and Nock were in the rear, with Steve looking almost stricken as he walked beside the lady Nock. She, however, seemed unaffected. Thor wondered if her ability to mess with the mind had left her immune.

“Nock?”

She looked over at Steve, but it was not Steve she saw standing there. It was the face of the first man she ever killed. She let out a deep breath and the image went back to the face of her favorite Avenger.

“Are you alright?”

“I’ll be better when we’re home with Thanos’s head on a pike.”

Tony spoke up from in front of them.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

Bronach smiled. Bad as things were, it was nice to have a reminder of the older days when her teammates were all alive and mostly getting along.

“Heads up!”, Carol called out.

Up ahead, some 100 yards ahead of them, there was a tall figure. Bronach had not personally seen Thanos, yet the footage from Wakanda’s security information would suggest him to be bulkier and taller than the figure Carol spotted. He also appeared to be the wrong color. Granted, their suits looked pink and brown in the weird atmosphere of this sub-realm, so Bronach was not sure what to make of colors.

Thor flew forward with Carol, the two arriving well ahead of the rest of the team. The figure had their back turned and yet Thor knew exactly who he was seeing. The question was if it was the same figure everyone else was seeing.

“Loki? It cannot be.”

The figure turned, hair wild and black as night, skin as blue as aged ice, and eyes as red as freshly spilled blood. He was in his Jotun form. His clothing was wrinkled and charred, ill-fitting on his too-thin frame. Before Thor could say another word, there was a flash of pale pink in the corner of his vision in his natural eye, shifting his attention to his left.

In her gleaming uniform and her facial tattoos almost glowing, stood the only Valkyrie left in existence. She offered a small, tired smile to Thor. Loki spared her a look before returning his penetrating gaze to Carol Danver’s blazing form.

“I see you’ve made new friends, brother.”

His voice sounded different, though Thor was not sure if it was this realm or the fact that Loki’s façade had been stripped from him.

“You’re alive?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, I had to allow you to believe I had been killed. It was only a double.”

“Your doubles do not have solid form.”

Loki’s smile turned wicked, even if it lacked the usual gleam of humour.

“I never had a need of a solid one before. Takes more concentration. Our mutual friend had to spirit me away once the deed was done, as I was a bit too drained.”

“He left out the part where he made sure you were in place for those Guardians to find you. He wouldn’t leave you simply drifting.”

“But how did you get here?”

Carol broke in, needing some clarification.

“Brother? Doubles? What is going on here?”

The team had caught up enough to overhear the conversation, for which Thor was grateful. He would not have to repeat anything and the team would realize that Loki and Brunnhilde were on their side.

“He is Loki, my brother. I watched Thanos kill him just before Thanos left me adrift to die in space. Brunnhilde is a Valkyrie, the last of my father’s greatest warriors.”

Turning back to Loki, he inquired of what weighted most on his mind at present.

“How did you fool Thanos and how did you get here?”

“Thank our mother. She taught me a great deal about disguising myself. She also told Heimdall of the day when it looked like we would die and he would be unable to save us. She warned him to send me here and to send you to Midgard. Heimdall did not live long enough to do both, I could not let him fail in saving you, though I hadn’t the power to send you straight to Midgard. I could make sure you were found.”

Brunnhilde added, “I was close enough, as was Maeve, we came along with him.”

Thor looked, trying to spot her.

“Where is she?”

Loki looked as if Thor had taken all the wind out of him and Brunnhilde reached over to offer a hand to his shoulder.

“She disappeared.”

“When?”

Brunnhilde gave him a hard look.

“There is no way to measure time here, no sun or growing things. We had not been here long, I think. She was training with us and then she got an odd look on her face before she glowed in flame and then seemed to turn to ash.”

Thor nearly fell back. Maeve, his brother’s long lost lover, returned to them just before Thanos’s attack. She had been one of the most powerful beings he had ever known and one of the few who could intimidate Loki, though she preferred to make him laugh.

“Who is Maeve?”, asked Tony.

“One of the Firebrand, a dying race who used to help protect Asgard in ages past. They were not as well known as the Valkyrie. Their gift was fire, a flame that came from their very soul, and they can use it as an effective, deadly weapon. I thought she died on the ship, along with Loki, Heimdall, Brunnhilde, and all the rest of Asgard.”

Brunnhilde nodded, “She almost did. Loki stashed her, making her promise to stay hidden till he called for her. I suspect he knew she would see his double being killed by Thanos and would react much the way he knew you would.”

“I’m sorry, Thor. I needed Thanos to believe I was dead. Mother had warned me, years ago, about a Titan I needed to fear. I suspected, when I met him in the darkness after my fall from the Bifrost. Yet I did not see him to know him, not until it was too late. By then I was under his sway and unable to wrench free of him. I knew I needed to get here for the trap to work.”

“Trap?”

“I meant to lure him here with the belief that I had the Soul Stone.”

“But he had the stone, in his gauntlet.”, Tony interjected.

“He would have lost it the moment he used the gauntlet to do his ultimate bidding.”

Tony and Steve both stepped forward, having jumped to the same conclusion.

“So, you knew what his plan was?”, Tony accused.

“Yes.”

“And yet you let him do it?”

“I could not have stopped him until after the deed was done. Not until the Soul Stone had abandoned him.”

Even with the mask up on his helmet, Thor could see that Tony was seething. Nebula came forward and went to strike Loki, only for Bronach to tackle her.

“Let him explain himself!”, she commanded.

Looking up, Bronach looked between the two Asgardian Princes. Nebula bucked underneath her so Bronach pulled up some darkness to cloud the blue-skinned woman’s vision only to find it wouldn’t work. There was no movement in the dark.

“Bronach?”

She looked up at Steve, eyes wide.

“I can’t move the dark.”

Clint swore under his breath and Natasha moved to help hold Nebula in place without anyone getting harmed. Looking to Loki, Natasha issued her order.

“Explain.”

“I have studied the stones, but more specifically, the Soul Stone. It requires a high price to attain it. A soul for a soul. He had to sacrifice the person he cared about most in the universe.”

Clint growled, “Hard to collect anything after committing suicide.”

Loki shook his head.

“There would have needed to be another.”

Nebula let out a sound they all knew. The sound of a broken heart.

“Gamora.”

Rocket came forward, growling between his sharp teeth.

“He killed Gamora for the stone. That’s why he needed her so badly.”

Loki nodded.

“I do not know the details, but he would have been required to sacrifice someone he cared about, someone of utmost importance to him, for the Stone to come to him. However, once he used the stone to do the one thing he intended for it when he took possession, he would lose it. The rest of the Stones need the power of the Soul Stone in order for the rest of them to have the sway over the universe that they do. None of them are as powerful without the Soul Stone.”

Steve let that all sink in. If Thanos was without the most powerful of the Stones, that would mean he was significantly weaker than he had been during their battle in Wakanda. However, if Bronach’s lack of control over shadows and the way both Bruce and Carol seemed less-able to control their powers, he was not so sure their team was not equally leveled down.

“So why would he think the Soul Stone was here?”

Loki looked over at the Captain.

“I’ve been working to form an echo of the Soul Stone. All I needed was someone to help boost the signal so that Thanos would know it was here, unguarded, so he might have it again without needing to pay a price to get it. I mean to trick him into thinking all he needs to do is transport himself here, and the Stone is his. Except when he comes, he would be facing me, Thor, Brunnhidle, and Maeve. Then Maeve… disappeared, Thor was lost, and Brunnhilde’s powers have diminished more and more, the longer we’ve languished here.”

“I am here now, brother. And you have the Avengers and more, at your side now. Come. We shall set your trap and ensnare Thanos. Then we will take the gauntlet from him.”

Thor moved to walk with his brother and Brunnhilde, explaining what Shuri had told them about the Stones and the sub-realm. Steve walked beside Bronach, the rest of the team falling in the middle between the God of Thunder and the Captain.

“Do you think your other powers are intact here?”

“Enough to know what each member of our team is seeing and hearing, that is eating away at them.”

Steve nodded.

“So, you can still cast a shadow of doubt and sense when someone is doubting themselves?”

She nodded.

“Good.”

~*~*~*~           ~*~*~*~            ~*~*~*~

Nakia watched as Shuri built the last bit of the new gauntlet for Carol. She wanted this perfectly fitted and complete before she heard the chime on her computers to let her know it was time to bring the team back. The quicker they could have Carol wielding the power of the Stones, the better.

“It will be done in time.”, Nakia offered to the woman who would be her sister-by-marriage, Bast-willing.

Shuri smiled, offering a single but determined nod. Nakia checked over her shoulder to see how Okoye was holding up. She had barely spoken since T’Challa had been taken. Natasha Romanov had explained that Okoye had been holding T’Challa’s hand, as he was helping her up onto her feet, when he disappeared. One second he had been there, teasing with her in the heat of battle just as was normal between them, and the next second he had been gone. Just like what happened on the shuttle on the way in a few days ago.

Okoye caught her eye, offering a slight tilt of the head. Nakia returned it. Neither had much to offer the Avengers in the sub-realm, and both would die without hesitation to protect Shuri. Nakia did not doubt M’Baku was just as dedicated to whatever would undo Thanos’s handiwork, though he seemed to have developed a soft spot for the sharp-tongued, fiercely loyal Princess.

“Wong?”, she asked. The older man turned to look at her from his perch in the windows of Shuri’s lab.

“Any feelings?”

He shook his head.

“Not quite. I do have faith.”

Nakia offered the man a tired smile.

“That will have to suffice.”

“Yes.”

With that, he closed his eyes and returned his attention to whatever he had been meditating on since Shuri had turned her attention to the gauntlet. Nakia checked the control panel again, making sure everyone’s vitals were still steady and that no one had hit the S.O.S. buttons on their suits. Closing her eyes for a moment, she sent a prayer up to Bast to bring home everyone they loved and to ensure a successful mission to the sub-realm.

“Bast protect them.”, she whispered as she opened her eyes to a complete Wakandian gauntlet.


	3. First Light of Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens once Thanos arrives? How will they fight him? And, even if they win, will this crazy plan work?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: Mild cursing, dealing with mechanical limbs, survivor's guilt, and discussion of being stranded.
> 
> Next chapter will be a happy, cheerful epilogue.

After they had walked a while, Thor asked the question that was beginning to come to their minds.

“Where are we going?”

Brunnhilde answered, “There is an area we found, however long ago, where our powers were stronger.”

Loki added, “My ability to create my trap will triple. With you to pull from, Thor, I will be able to easily lure Thanos into our trap.”

“And what happens when he gets here and realizes the Stone isn’t here?”, asked Pepper.

Loki turned, regarding her for a moment before answering.

“We’ll need to be right on him. We cannot allow him to realize the Stone is not here, until we’ve got him pinned. He won’t be able to transport himself out again for a while, he will need to wait for an alignment. We need only hold him for a few minutes until the current alignment passes, then he will be trapped here at least until the next alignment. That should give us enough time to take the remaining Stones from him, so he will have only his own physical strength and his wits.”

Scott raised his hand, causing everyone to look over at him.

“Um, how will we know how much time we have until the current a…um, alignment, is over? And how will we know when the next one is coming?”

“You won’t. I will tell you.”

“So, the Scary-Smurf is going to give us a heads up for when we have this Thanos guy trapped and for how long we have until he might be able to escape again? Great.”

Loki let out a sigh, then looked at Thor.

“I will not fail you.”

Thor clapped a hand over Loki’s shoulder, thankfully keeping the leather between his brother’s skin and his own, ensured that he did not get an ice burn over his lack of thought in touching his brother. Loki moved away, as if more mindful of the bite his skin offered.

“Come. We haven’t much time.”

Scott, unable to help himself, asked the question that had immediately leapt to mind.

“I thought you said you couldn’t keep track of time here?”

“I can’t. The alignments are not something that happens at exact, regular intervals. It could be minutes or days, even months of time in our universe before the alignments shift just right for traveling. I have learned to read the alignments, and can see when there is a useful one coming. Thanos also knows how to do this, though he does not command my level of skill so he will need to make his jumps when the alignments are their midway points. I can make them at the very opening, or closing. I needn’t be so patient for an opportunity.”

They continued to walk for some time before Loki stopped them, looking around for a while before giving a quick, bobbing nod. He looked to Thor to explain.

“We’re here.”

Steve exchanged a look with Thor, then began making plans.

“Lange, you’re on our six with Pepper. Clint, Nat, 3 o’clock. Bronach, take Rocket and Nebula to our 12. Tony, Hulk, we’re taking 9. Thor, you and Brunnhilde cover Loki. Danvers, you’re our secret weapon.”

Carol Danvers grinned.

“Yes, sir.”

~*~*~*~     ~*~*~*~     ~*~*~*~

They did not have to wait long before Thanos appeared. His armor gleamed and the gauntlet appeared to nearly glitter in the odd light of the sub-realm. Thanos moved forward, seeing that he was standing at the center of some sort of field with several people at each of the compass points. He was about to use the gauntlet when he felt two things at once. First, his mind began to go fuzzy on him. As if many voices all whispered to him simultaneous in a ceaseless echo, rising quickly to a point that made him feel smothered by the noise. Second, he felt as if he was being pulled apart at a molecular level.

“So how does it feel, father?”

He turned, finding Gamora standing there. She was nolonger the small child he had seen when he first entered the realm of the Soul stone. No, her ghost took her adult form, though less hard edged and intimidating than she had been in life. Her hair was longer, her face softer, her clothes more like what her people wore when at worship. The flowing layers suited her.

“How does it feel to have gotten everything you wanted?”

“Empty. Satisfying. Alone. Peaceful.”

“PEACE! You speak of peace. You ripped my life from me, and you speak of peace! You do not deserve peace!”

Thanos tried to snap himself out of it. He could feel the fight going on, and on some level he was aware enough to handle fighting the Avengers, but he felt as if he could not connect fully to his body and that he could not concentrate enough to truly control the Stones through his gauntlet. Then, he felt the gauntlet slip from his hand.

He got small glimpses. The super-soldier pulling and tugging at the gauntlet, the archer shooting explosive blasts at him to make him disoriented. The blonde assassin beating at his legs, helping to keep him off-balance. And he could feel the tickle of something crawling up his arm and then the Gauntlet growing larger, heavier, but the Stones did not grow. They fell from the Gauntlet, rendering it useless as it fell from his ruined hand.

Thanos fell to his knees. Gamora laughed. A cackle, echoing inside his head enough to make him ill. His Gamora. His favorite daughter. Tears streamed down her face as she laughed, and Thanos felt as if he were drowning.

Steve called out for Bronach and Thor called for Loki, and suddenly everything was clear. Thanos found himself in the middle of the same field he had arrived to, sensing the Soul Stone lay there, unguarded. Instead, he found his enemies laying in wait for him. He smiled grimly. The Jotun magician and the Earth-born shadow, had stolen his mind from him enough to make him no match for the combined might of these Avengers.

Looking, he spotted Nebula in their ranks. His lesser daughter. Sitting there shaking his head, he could only think, ‘I thought have known it would be her.’ She came forward, stalking him as she stalked everyone. Leaning, she tilted her head in a birdlike fashion before speaking.

“You took Gamora. I’m taking her back. Goodbye, Father.”

She turned, walking away without a backward glance. Thanos almost laughed. The bitter irony that his lesser daughter would be instrumental in undoing all he had fought for, was not lost on him. He then looked up to see Thor coming up to him.

“I told you that I would kill you.”

“And is that what is about to happen?”

“Not just yet.”

Thor pulled up the lightening that lived just below his skin, drawing up to his new weapon. He called out as if trying to make sure he was heard in Valhalla, before bringing his weapon down upon the gauntlet, smashing and burning it at once. Now Thanos could not hope to control the Stones, even should he get them back. The Avengers had packed each one nicely into little boxes with a Wakandian design to them.

“Now, you cannot use the Stones to do your bidding.”

“No, son of Odin. I cannot. But you cannot undo what has been done, without first getting the Soul Stone. Could any of you have the strength to sacrifice the person you love most, in order to restore the universe? I don’t think you could.”

Rocket growled, “Because you killed everyone we loved most, dipshit.”

“There are other ways to power the Stones.”

Turning on his knees, Thanos spotted a woman who looked like a walking flame. She glowed and burned like a goddess.

“Ah, the one who kept me in place while they each took their turn.”

“Yes.”

“How do you plan to power the Stones without the most important Stone?”

“Don’t worry, it won’t include you.”

Pulling back her hand, she punched him hard enough to break his teeth and leave him unconscious on the ground. Looking up, she saw the Avengers all looking at her.

“I think stranding him here forever, powerless, while we fix what he did, is the most fitting punishment.”

“I agree.”

They all turned in shock to look at Nebula.

“I want him to spend eternity in this nightmare realm, tortured by visions of Gamora’s death.”

Glancing, Steve noticed a very important fact. The countdown clock was coming close to the 00:00 mark. Looking up at the team, he made them aware of their timeline.

“We’ve got less than an hour to get the Stones out of here.”

Thor tapped his button to signal Shuri to bring them home. Everyone else each tapped their buttons, and Thor pulled Loki and Brunnhilde close. He only hoped that Shuri would not have set things so closely as to take only him and not bring Brunnhilde and Loki.

They materialized in groups, with Tony, Pepper, Rocket, and Thor arriving in the first wave. Thor went straight to Shuri, knowing that she had set the parameters strictly enough to bring home only the team and the Stones.

“My brother, he was there. My brother and Brunnhilde, they were waiting for us. They helped us! We must bring them back!”

Shuri could only bring them back if she loosened the parameters of her program. Quickly typing into her control panel, she began to work on it as Scott, Nebula, Clint, and Natasha appeared. That left Carol, Steve, Bronach, and Bruce. Shuri could tell from her readings that she would be able to grab them, as one member had taken hold of the two life forms not wearing tracking suits. First, she pulled the final four members of the team, plus two new forms, through space and time, into the realm she had occupied all her life.

Thor waited, anxious to see if Shuri’s calculations had worked. Then, suddenly Bruce, Carol, Bronach, Steve, Brunhilde, and Loki all appeared on the platform. Steve had grabbed Loki and Brunnhilde by their hands in order to anchor them, enabling Shuri to more quickly latch onto them and drag them through with the team. However, Thor could see that Steve’s hand had been burned through his glove, in holding Loki’s hand.

Natasha and Bronach were at his sides in a second, pulling Steve away to where he could receive medical attention while Thor moved to embrace his brothers, who now stood in his familiar Aesir form. Once more blue-eyed, fair-skinned, with wild black hair, and looking frail and too-thin even when not-blue. Brunnhilde looked a bit worse for wear, though it did not appear to be anything a good meal and some rest would not cure in a hurry.

“Come, we must rest. Tomorrow we have a lot to do.”

Carol stepped forward, shaking her head.

“No. Let’s do this now. I don’t want anyone to wait even a second longer than they have to. My best friend’s daughter is missing. I’m getting her baby back for her, NOW.”

Shuri rushed over, handing Carol Danvers the gauntlet. It did not look like the large, gaudy thing Thanos favored and was instead a fine blackened-steel colored wrist band with a piece seemingly to protect the back of the hand and another coming down from the wearer’s wrist up to their elbow. It had slots for each Stone.

“We need to figure out how to get the Soul Stone, then we can get this thing working. Any leads?”, Carol asked.

The whole team began to brainstorm. Even Loki, with all his prior studying, had not been entirely sure where the Soul stone might now be located. His best guess was that it had returned to where Thanos had first retrieved it from. Or that it had simply dissolved itself. Nebula soon tired of listening to the talk and went out to think alone.

Closing her eyes, she found herself nolonger seeing Gamora’s face as their father tortured Nebula to get information about the Soul Stone’s location from his favorite daughter. She now saw Gamora, smiling and sweet. The person her sister could be, if not for Thanos’s influence.

“Nebula?”

She turned, seeing no one.

“Nebula?”

Still, there was no one. Nebula began to wonder if they might still be in the sub-realm, all hallucinating. Then she felt a small pain in part of her mechanic arm. It was not the normal phantom pain she had grown accustomed to. This was a pulsing, dull pain. Opening the small compartment of her arm, she saw the Soul Stone. The amber glow looked bright and warm against the cold metal of her arm and the cool blue of her fingertips as she pulled pieces away to get a better look at the Stone.

Nebula stood and moved quickly but steadily, afraid to jostle or drop the Stone. She traced her steps back to where the Avengers all were trying to track down possible locations for the very thing resting inside of her arm. It took only a few moments to get there and Shuri shushed everyone as her sensors in the lab detected the Stone before Nebula was close enough for them to see what she was bringing in.

They all came to meet her in the hall as Nebula walked up with her mechanical arm opened to reveal the Soul Stone. She was met with looks of shock, surprise, and wonder. Even she was not sure how she came to have the Stone. Loki was the only one neither shocked nor curious.

“Gamora willingly gave her life for yours, the Stone believed the debt settled, granted itself to you.”

“Then may I add it to the Princess’s gauntlet so the glowing soldier can bring everyone back?”

“Yes.”, Loki answered.

Moving to where the glowing soldier stood beside the Princess, Nebula held her arm out to them, offering the Soul Stone.

“Come on, Princess. I don’t have all day.”

Shuri used tongs to quickly move the Stone to its place at the center of the new gauntlet. She then went to each of the boxes that Steve, Clint, Scott, Natasha, Tony, and Rocket were holding. They were each placed into the new gauntlet and then Carol moved to stand a little bit away from the rest of the team.

“Here goes nothing.”

She concentrated until she could feel a weird sort of consciousness from each of the Stones. Reaching out for them, she let her power reach and connect with the Stones, then she formed her thought into intention, just like Wong had coached her to do. She envisioned the faces she had seen in security footage, family photos, online news reports, and her own memories. Drawing them for the Stones and making it clear what she desired.

The team stood back, watching as Carol Danvers closed her eyes and began to breathe very slowly. By her firth breath, they could feel something shifting in the room. They could see their actions in reverse, from the moment they left to go to the sub-realm, back to the days they were making their plan, and to their defeat at Thanos’s hand. They could see the actions of the past happening around them, sometimes even seeing people walk through the Avengers as these people wet about their lives in the final couple days before Thanos’s victory.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, it stopped. Then all the actions moved forward again though with slight changes. Steve noticed the color of a woman’s jacket changed from what it had been before when she came in to help an injured friend limp over to be mended. Clint noticed that the time stamp on the wall was not the same for when T’Challa came to check on Shuri’s progress in dealing with her device she would drill Visions stone away from him with. Tony noticed that Shuri did not joke with T’Challa just before the King went out to greet Bruce, Sam, Natasha, and Steve on the royal airstrip.

Time stopped. For a breath, they all felt frozen almost except that they were aware of it. Then, like a bubble popped with a pin, the pause ended and time seemed to lurch back into place. Steve and Nebula were the first to rush outside, followed quickly by Clint and Loki. The rest of the team were on their heels.

Outside, the team found a crowd of people appearing over the hill. As they crested it, a few people began to recognize faces among the Avengers. Sam came flying down, coasting to Steve’s side. A few Wakandian soldiers and scientists recognized Shuri and rushed to the Princess’s side, just as Scott’s daughter, girlfriend, and girlfriend’s parents came running over to him.

Loki, Nebula, and Rocket stood at the edge of the group, waiting. None of them dared hope too greatly. Then Heimdall and Groot came over the hill in a second wave. Rocket rushed forward to greet his friend, running up into the arms of the adolescent Groot. Groot spun him around babbling on about how happy he was to be back, to be free, to have Rocket. Then Rocket spotted Mantis, Drax, and Peter. They rushed over, greeting Rocket and asking what had happened.

Heimdall went first to Thor, greeting him with a warrior’s handshake and a nod, then over to Loki to regard the dark Prince of Asgard with a golden stare. He seemed unchanged by experience despite all he had been through.

“It is good that you listened to your mother, Odinson.”

They clasped hands and Heimdall went back to talk to Brunnhilde and Thor. Clint, hoping to see his family, went to stand beside Loki. Loki turned, giving Clint the oddest look. Almost as if he felt guilt.

“I’m sorry, and I know that it does little to soothe what I have done. But, for what happened in the Avengers facility and New York, I am sorry. I was not myself.”

Clint nodded.

“Thor already explained. We’re cool.”

Steve, meanwhile, waited with Natasha, Bronach, and Sam. The three knew who he was hoping to see, just as they knew who exactly Shuri, Nakia, and Okoye waited for. Steve kept a sharp eye on the upcoming crowd, scanning for any hint of Bucky. Then, his body going absolutely still, Steve spotted his best friend. Bucky appeared to stumble a little and Steve was off and running to meet his oldest friend.

“Bucky!”

“Steve?”

“It’s me, Buck.”

Bucky rubbed his head.

“Where were we?”

Steve smiled at his friend, relieved beyond words that his best friend was back.

“The Soul Stone. It’s a long story.”

Bucky nodded.

“Come on, let’s get you inside, something to eat, maybe a drink, then you can get some rest.”

Bucky nodded, looking drained and tired, yet happy. Bronach helped guide Bucky back. Steve could hardly believe he had his friends back. Sam trailed behind them, just as tired as Bucky, so Steve helped steer him to the rooms T’Challa had offered them. They all were in need of days of sleep, mountains of food, and troughs of water.

Bronach traded off with Steve, helping Sam into the small side room off the main apartment they had been shown to, while Steve helped Bucky onto a bed in another similar little bedroom. When Steve stood, he felt his vision blur as his feet seemed to stumble over each other. Bronach was there, able to help guide him to the bed they occupied. She was not fairing much better than Steve, staying on her feet only because she had allowed herself a small breather before trying to walk after half-carrying Sam to bed.

Steve could not even find the energy to peel out of his fancy white and burgundy uniform, instead just laying there on his back, sprawled on the comfortable bed. The open windows allowed a soft breeze to air out the room and wipe some of the cobwebs and bad dreams from his mind. He needed to rest. Then, in the morning, he would wake to find what had become of the world. For now, Bucky slept peacefully in the room to Steve’s right, Sam slept in the room to his left, Bronach was curled asleep against Steve’s side, and his friends were being reunited with their loved ones outside.

“Steve?”

“Thought you were asleep.”

“Was. Needed to tell you som’thin.”

“Hm-hum.”

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

“Sleep, Steve. You need it.”

He nodded.

“Old man.”

Steve let out a breathy chuckle, already mostly asleep.

“We got them back.”

“Yes we did, Steve.”

“We did.”

Leaning, Steve planted a kiss on Bronach’s forehead as she snored lightly into the center of his chest. Her dark, messy hair covered his shoulder and part of her pillow. She was normally so deadly and frightening, yet in this moment she seemed like just an ordinary woman, asleep in her fiancé’s arms. He let his head fall back so he could finally fall to sleep. He only hoped when he woke that he would not learn this had all been a dream, and all their loved ones were still dust and Thanos still at large with the Stones.


	4. Tomorrow (Epilogue)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue, set a couple years after the team has fixed the Snap. Catching up with where everybody is now, who the Active Avengers and the Semi-Retired Avengers are, and of course a nice helping of bromance between Steve and Bucky at the end and in their old stomping ground. Also features a little Tony Stark, remembering Howard and Peggy, Sam Wilson being Sam, some new characters, and rescue animals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank you for reading. I know I've been slower with the updates than I meant to be, so thank you for hanging in there. Only a couple more weeks till ENDGAME, so I had to make sure Steve got to smile a little bit before the MCU tears him apart again.
> 
> Thank you for reading and for all the kudos/bookmarks/etc. It means a lot!

Steve let out a long breath, stretching his arms fully out, taking up most of the king-sized bed. As he stretched, he noticed that the half generally occupied by a dark-haired woman, lay empty. And cold. Sitting up, Steve looked around. He didn’t smell coffee, couldn’t hear Bronach moving around the kitchen downstairs or in her study, and the dog was gone. She must have had another attack of insomnia and gone for a walk.

He tossed the covers aside and grabbed a zip-up hoodie, shoes, and cell phone. He could get his morning run in before Bronach would be looking for him, then they could go into town. She had mentioned she was craving some ice cream and Steve had wanted to check on Sam in person. They could drag Sam out for some ice cream. The man could not refuse if they bribed him with Tammy’s Candy Shop’s Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.

A few minutes later, Steve was changed and ready, doing a couple stretches on the front porch to loosen up for his run. He was interrupted by a wet nose pressing sharply into his knee. He reached to rub between Lady’s ears. She was half-golden retriever, half mutt, and all heart. Steve had spotted her at a shelter when he was helping them after a storm had taken out their roof at the Last Chance Rescue. Just a couple papers and a donation later, Steve had brought little Lady home and Bronach surprised him by coming home from the grocery store with one can each of every flavor of dog food from her preferred brand. He couldn’t recall exactly what was so special about each one, he just remembered they were all made with real meat and had no preservatives in them.

“Hey Lady. Where’s your mama?”

Lady turned, pointing her nose towards the 2-car garage Bronach had built with Clint’s help one week while Steve had been off with Bucky and Sam. The fishing trip they had taken turned out to be a near-disaster, but the photos were all in positions of pride for Sam at the Rehab Center he was now the second in command of.

“Let’s go see her. Come on! Let’s go!”, he called, only to have Lady shoot out ahead of him to the garage.

“Nock?”, he called as he entered. The right half held his motorcycle and most of the items he used to work out. The left side held a pool table, a couple old arcade games, and Bronach’s little carpentry shop she had made for herself. And that was where he found her, pulling out some tools and with a couple papers in her left hand as she bee-bopped her head to the beat of whatever song was playing on her earbuds.

Lady booped Bronach’s leg, making a disgruntled noise at the back of her throat that seemed to go through the music to get Bronach’s attention. She looked at Lady, then pulled out an earbud and smiled up at Steve.

“Hey, you slept in a little.”

“Yeah, and you’re up four hours too early if you’re already dressed and out here working.”

She grinned, turning back to her table as she laid out the tools she intended to work with. Steve was not sure where the cheerful morning person mood was coming from until he saw the plans she had pulled out to work from.

“Thor and Sif?”

She nodded.

“Just heard this morning. Guess he told Loki and Maeve a little bit back, and Carol dropped in to check how things are going on Asgard 2.0, when she noticed Sif wasn’t in attendance. She asked where the warrior queen was at, Thor boasted the good news, and Carol relayed it when she got in last night. So I dug out my most-durable baby toy plans. I mean, the kid’s gonna be half-Thunder God and half-Warrior Queen.”

Steve smiled so wide, he felt he might bust. Thor was finally going to be a father. He had been aware, from what Thor had said over the years, that he had been looking forward to Fatherhood. It seemed that Loki had no such intentions with his wife, so Thor knew that he must have children to ensure the royal line. However, Thor greatly wanted to be a father for the reasons of seeing a child growing up that was a combination of Thor and Sif, and all the other things parents held so dear.

“Will they be visiting before the big event, or…?”, he asked.

“Don’t know,” Bronach muttered as she bent down to dig into one of her hand-made, dresser-sized toolboxes, “just that he officially announced the impending birth to the Kingdom of Asgard. Carol says everyone is bugging Loki and Maeve now about when they’ll add to the royal brood. I guess Loki has been making it clear that one Odingrandchild running around is enough.”

Steve nodded. Not everyone desired a family, some were content with just their partner or even with their circle of friends. Back during the War, he and Bucky had talked about their futures. Wives, children, a little house with a nice yard and a dog to play with the kids. That had been the dream. Now, it was different. Bucky had recently met someone, and she seemed to have a real knack for reading his moods and making him laugh. Steve and Bronach had been married a little over a year now.

Neither he or Bucky ever talked about children, normal jobs, and the like now. They talked about their lives, their friends, the women in their lives, their pets, and their projects they used to keep busy when the whole Avengers gig permitted. Both of them were semi-retired, only joining in particularly big missions or when their expertise was required. Clint had done the same, as had Tony and Thor.

The primary team now was Wanda, Vision, Peter Parker, Pietro Maximoff, Scott, Hope, Bronach, Rhodey, Strange, and Natasha in charge. Steve, Bucky, Sam, Thor, T’Challa, Tony, Pepper, Bruce, and Clint were now all semi-retired. Pepper and Tony were busy running the company, working on several big charities and, of course, raising their daughter. They also mentored Peter.

Clint had gone back to his family on the farm, after the reunification in Wakanda, when Carol had successfully bonded with the new Gauntlet to bring everyone back. Thor had gone back to Asgard, which he found had not been destroyed in the new timeline, suffering only a few nasty blows during the events of a battle against their long-lost sister.

Rocket and Nebula had left with the Guardians, after Gamora appeared at Strange’s sanctum a few days after everyone else had reappeared, and she got to have a reunion with her team, her lover, and her sister. T’Challa had reappeared on the hill with everyone else and nearly was knocked flat by Shuri when she tackled him. Scott and Hope had recently married, and according to Bronach, they still bickered like an old married couple.

“What are you going to make for the royal heir of Thor Odinson?”

“I’m making a replica of daddy’s famous hammer and another of his mom’s shield. Never too early to brainwash the kid into being a superhero.”

Steve nodded.

“Family tradition.”

“Exactly.”

Turning, she smiled up at him.

“Now if we could just get Wanda and Vision to have a kid, so I can make those TRON-style toys I’ve got the plans for.”

“Why TRON?”

“Well, when your daddy is a combo A.I./Alien and your mom has super powers that earned her the nickname ‘witch’, I figured I could do some TRON toys and some LORD OF THE RINGS themed ones.”

“So swords, little dragons, lightcycles, and little discs to play-fight with. You’re going to spoil these kids.”

“Oh, I haven’t even gotten to the part where I found a way to make wooden toys have glow in the dark pieces.”, she called before moving back to digging in her tool chest.

“On that note, I’m going to run. When I get back, want to head into town?”

She spun, looking at him like a kid with candy having been dangled.

“Will it include a trip to Tammy’s for ice cream?”

“Is that all you and Sam think about?”

“Hey, Lady likes it too. So does Bucky, and don’t pretend you don’t eat a whole pint by yourself without any trouble.”

She had him there.

“Alright, I’m going to do my run. Then town for ice cream and a visit to Sam, not in that order though.”

Bronach smiled, leaning to give him a sweet kiss.

“Alright, Mr.Rogers. Get to joggin’. Gotta burn off those calories I haven’t shoved at you yet.”

Steve caught her wrist as she went to step away, pulling her in to give her a real kiss, leaving her a little breathless before he let her go and sprinted off far too quickly for her to hope to catch him.

“JERK!”, she shouted with a smile, before shaking her head and turning back to her workshop. Steve ran halfway to town before pausing for a drink from his water bottle and to check his phone. He had a couple texts from Sam about Thor’s news, but he also had gotten a new text from Bucky.

“Steve, added to the family. Isn’t she beautiful?”

Included was a picture of a midnight black cat with a missing ear and a scar across her nose, but bold yellow eyes. The next text made Steve want to laugh.

“Her name is Bagheera. Don’t blame me, Nikki named her.”

Nikki was a teenaged girl Bucky had been sort of mentoring, for the past year. She was wicked with a baseball bat and Bucky had been teaching her the finer points of aim and eye contact in sports, after she had found him during one of his rough spells, huddled and soaking under the bleachers during a storm. Her cat, Georgia, had run off when the thunder started and Nikki had been looking for her when she found Bucky and the cat at the high school’s baseball field.

Ever since, Nikki had been a shadow to Bucky. Her dad ran died when she was 2, her mom had given up on her by the time she was 8, and her grandma was doing her best to raise the girl. Since she had found Bucky, and he let her help him take care of his cats when missions took him away overnight, it seemed they were both doing better. Sam had suggested Bucky, back in his own teenage years, had always had the sickly Steve to take care of. That in all his time as the Winter Soldier, there hadn’t been anyone for him to take care of. Now, he had someone who he could look after and who he had to do a better job taking care of himself in order to be there for Nikki. Plus he had the growing number of cats.

Steve texted back, “She’s beautiful. Nice name. You still coming Sunday to dinner? I’m making steaks.”

He had barely gotten the phone back into his pocket when it dinged with Bucky’s tone. Checking, he laughed as he read the response.

“Bronach gonna make her famous cobbler?”

“She is, and she bought a huge container of plumbs. Can’t imagine who they are for.”

The response was quick and short.

“Punk.”

Steve responded with an emoji of a Thumbs Up, then put the phone and water bottle away. He had a run to finish.

~*~*~*~         ~*~*~*~         ~*~*~*~

Steve and Bucky stood in the back, sure that no one would see or recognize them as they watched the goings on. A new baseball field was being installed for the kids from their old neighborhood and it was supposed to have a dedication today. Stark had paid for it, of course, after learning some kids were fund raising for it and had only gotten together 271 dollars and fifteen cents after over two years of work. Bronach and Sam had all but threatened to drop them on the stage two seconds before the dedication if they didn’t go voluntarily.

“When do you think they’ll get to the food?”, Bucky asked.

“Not soon enough.”

Bucky looked around, the ballcap and hoodie making him look like he was on the run again. Steve took a slow breath. Not that he was any better in the faded gray hoodie over a navy baseball cap, and aviators to hide his eyes. Even the beard probably wasn’t doing much to evade the image of a guy trying not to be recognized.

“Oh, there’s Stark Junior.”

Steve looked up, not bothering to comment on Bucky’s preferred title for Tony. Bucky almost never called their friend’s son by his first name. He was Iron Man when talked about to strangers and acquaintances, Junior when talking for Steve’s ears only, and Mr.Stark when speaking directly to the man. Granted, Tony still had trouble being in the same room with Bucky for the same reason Bucky hated looking Tony in the eyes.

Tony strode out to the podium, waving and smiling at the members of the crowd. He had certainly inherited Howard’s gift for connecting with the audience and for looking like he was born on a stage under the spotlight. Actually, with Howard’s penchant for young actresses, it wouldn’t have surprised Steve to learn Tony actually had been born in a backstage area or dressing room right after a show, or in the middle of it.

“Hello, Ladies, Gentleman, and everybody. Today we are opening a very special park. Named for the team two of the most-famous local boys joined when they went to the war to fight Nazis, this field is going to host some of the first and latest green-energy, allowing it to run without ever having an electric bill. The bleachers have built in heaters to keep your butts warm on those first spring games, the lights are eco-friendly, and even the uniforms will be made ethically of sustainable materials. A very different world than the one our two homegrown heroes knew when they came out here to watch games before the world went to war.”

Tony paused, looking down at the stage and over the field for a moment before he resumed his speech.

“My father brought me out here, three times, to see a game. He was not a big baseball fan. He preferred poker and women’s volleyball.”

The crowd chuckled and Tony smiled.

“Those three games are some of my fondest memories. No one bothered us, no one recognized Howard Stark, no press paid us any mind. And for those hours, my father paid attention only to the game and me. I want these kids, and kids in the future, to have that. A place where the world gets left behind outside the bleachers and for a little while, they can just be kids. Just enjoy. Have their loved ones cheering them on from the sidelines and have their teammates work with them for a common goal.”

That earned a quieter response, as a few clapped and some murmured in the affirmative.

“I know both men this field will be named for. The one, he was the man my father held up as the measure of what a good man was. The other, well my father did not know him as well or speak of him as much, though I have come to know for myself that he is one of the best men from the greatest generation. These two men… Suffice to say the world wouldn’t still be standing if not for them. And I think I’ve rambled enough, let’s get this show on the road. Without further ado, I present to you the Barnes-Rogers Field, which will be the home of the Brooklyn Commandos!”

Everyone seated rose to their feet to clap and cheer. Those already standing hooped and hollered, clapping and whistling for the kids who came running out for the first game on the Barnes-Rogers field. Steve felt his chest swell with pride at seeing the kids bearing the Commando name and seeing kids from his own neighborhood, as they lined up to shake their opponents’ hands. Glancing over, he found Bucky smiling as he clapped.

The kids moved to take their positions, the coaches readying, and the crowd moving to watch, get snacks, or film on their smart phones. Steve felt Bucky’s cool, metallic hand tap his upper arm.

“What?”

“Do you smell the popcorn?”

“Yeah. Want some?”

Bucky was gone in a flash, leaving Steve to chuckle after his friend. A moment later, a man came by selling hot dogs, bottled water, and boxes of candy. Stark bought it all and then the profits from the sales went directly to gear for the kids and the field. Steve went ahead and bought six hot dogs, two bottles of water for himself, and a couple boxes of the candies. He had just paid when Bucky came back with two large containers of popcorn and a large slurpy that had already turned his tongue slightly blue.

“Whose winning?”

“No one has pitched yet.”

“Really? Slow game.”

“New players, new field, new equipment.”

“True. My money is on the Commandos.”

Steve reached for a popcorn and traded to hand Bucky half the hot dogs.

“Of course it is. No bet.”

Bucky grinned and took a long drink off his slurpy as they watched the opening pitch. Steve smiled to himself as he watched the kids out on the field playing. Life did not get much better than this. After everything, a world war, being frozen, Bucky’s time at the Winter Soldier, the battle of New York, losing Peggy all over again, the Accords, Ultron, Thanos, all of it- he finally had his friend back, they each had people in their lives to help keep them going and to be taken care of by them, they had been reunited, and now they could come back to Brooklyn and watch a little league game any time they wanted. No, life did not get better than this.

A text drew his attention. It was from Sam, as he held a beer in one hand and a hot dog balanced on his arm so he could hold the phone to take a selfie. A selfie he captioned with, “#ForgottenAtFrontGate”. Steve texted him back with their row and seat numbers.

“Bird brain get here yet?”

Steve showed the photo and caption to Bucky, earning an eye roll. Sam and Bucky still acted like they hated each other, even after Thanos put everyone in the Soul Stone. However, Steve could tell the difference and knew the two men were good friends beneath all the wisecracks, insults, and jokes.

“I’ll have to bring Nikki some time.”

“Yeah. I bet she will make first string on the high school team.”

“You bet she will.”

Bucky looked around, the fugitive look ruined a bit by the bright blue lips and the purple tongue between blueish teeth when he spoke.

“Thanks for coming back for me, Steve.”

“Till the end of the line, Buck.”

Bucky smiled over at him.

“Till the end of the line.”

 


End file.
